Helen, I'd just separate the seeds and keep them. The fact that they stuck together doesn't mean they aren't viable. I've planted a clump of tomato seeds before where 2 or 3 seeds were stuck together, and they all germinated and then I pricked them apart, using a toothpick to separate their roots while they were very small, and potted them up separately and they grew just fine. If you feel like your seeds might not be viable, you could try germinating 10 of them and then calculate your germination rate based on how many of those 10 germinate. Then, based on your germination rate, you could decide if you should save some more seed or if you are happy with the seed you already have. I have grown several of the tomato varieties from The Dwarf Project, including Rosella Purple, and none of them have produced well for me nor have they had flavor that impressed me. Keep in mind that we have had nothing but drought years since I started trying to grow these varieties so it might not be a fair trial, but that's the weather I have here and it isn't likely to change. Of the varieties I've grown from The Dwarf Project, Rosella Purple produced better than the others, but it didn't produce well enough in 2 or 3 consecutive years to make it worth growing again. I grew it both in large containers (molasses feed tubs, which are about the size of whiskey half-barrels) and in raised beds filled with well-amended loamy clay. Rosella Purple set fruit well in the heat in the ground, and didn't do much of anything in the container, but the flavor was only average at best. For someone looking for a purple tomato that sets very well in very high heat, I think Rosella Purple would fit the bill, but I am very picky about tomato flavor and it just doesn't taste as good as I'd hoped it would. I've grown Indigo Rose a couple of years and it is just your typical novelty tomato that you might grow as a conversation piece. The flavor is only so-so. I do like having one of them in a large pot by the driveway (beside the red barn so its' color really stands out) where everyone can see it and ask myewhat sort of freaky blue tomato I'm growing. Eating them though? Not enjoyable. They produce loads and loads of fruit, which is a plus, but having loads of bland fruit that is not especially tasty is just silly. What's the point in growing them then? I think I used up the last of my Indigo Rose seed this year and won't plant it again. With tomatoes, cooking them, particularly when combined with olive oil, is supposed to release some of the healthful compounds and make them more available to your body and more easily absorbed by your body, so I think that the blue tomatoes could be combined in anything you cook---like tomato sauce or salsa---but I haven't done it. I just feed the blue ones to my chickens. I have learned to be careful about blending too many differently colored tomatoes together in sauce or salsa because you can end up with some odd colors....kinda like mixing together too many paint colors and ending up with a muddy color. Jay, Ditto on the heat here. We have had highs of 107-110 as recently as this past weekend. Yesterday our forecast high was 95 but our weather ignored the forecast and hit 100 degrees anyway. Because the drought continues and the heat is just ridiculous, the plants are really suffering. One fall tomato plant just gave up and died, and it was in a container and I could move it into shade on the worst days, but I just think too many hot temperatures since it was planted in late June or early July weakened it and it couldn't take the heat any more. Another couple of the fall plants look pretty bad and I'm not expecting much from them. I still have several varieties of tomatoes from the spring planting that look reasonably good and have a chance of producing in the fall if I keep watering, but I'm kinda at the point where continuing to water probably isn't smart. I think the return, in terms of a harvest, wouldn't be enough to make it financially smart to keep pouring water onto the veggie garden. Momotaro is still producing in the front garden and it will get water because it is right beside the asparagus. Several SunGold plants likely will continue to get some water because they are growing near the fig tree in the back garden. All the others, except for the fall tomato plants in containers, likely are done. I'll keep watering those fall tomatoes, but with highs remaining around 100 degrees all week and no rain in the forecast, I don't know that they're even going to get a chance to set fruit before the first frost arrives. Our weather is cooler this week than it was last week, but only marginally so. Only three of the fall tomato plants have set fruit. From those three plants, I have harvested three ripe tomatoes and have another one at breaker stage. That's not much of a return so far given that I have had them in containers and have watered them regularly (at least every other day, and often every day) since I planted them the last week of June or the first week in July. Our high temperatures have consistently gone 5-7 degrees above the NWS point forecast for our exact location all summer long, and they've consistently been hotter than the highs at our county's mesonet station. It has driven me nuts. I kept thinking that all our thermometers surely were broken, but then bought two brand new thermometers (the old-fashioned mercury type) and put them right beside the digital thermometers (5' above ground in full shade) and they are recording the same temperatures. I guess the fact that a lot of the rain has kept missing us while hitting the area where our mesonet station is part of the reason we're going hotter than expected, and hotter than what is recorded at the mesonet station. If I had known we'd stay so insanely hot and dry in August, I likely wouldn't have bothered planting fall tomatoes. We had a great spring crop, harvesting from the last week of April through the beginning of August, though it mostly has been only SunGolds the last couple of weeks. I'm about done with the garden for this year. I can't control the weather, and the plants can't set fruit in this heat. Being able to water enough to keep the plants alive is one thing but if they aren't setting fruit, it seems like a (pun intended) fruitless endeavor. Dawn

Hi Susan, A tomato is ripe for seed saving when it is ripe to eat. (Some things must be over ripe, eggplant and cucumbers are examples of that.) It is best to wait until a tomato is fully ripe to save seeds. A bit over ripe is fine. If really under ripe, you will get no viable seed. If a bit under ripe, you may not get as many good seed, but will still get some that are usable. It is easiest to think of the fruit as a womb, and waiting for the seeds is like a pregnancy. You want to go full term for the healthiest babies. Tomato crossing rates are very low. It does happen though. So it is best to save seed from multiple fruit. The chances of all the fruit being crossed is very low so you know you'll have true seed. Hope this helps, Remy

songbird, by all means do save your seeds. You have to begin somewhere. Why not try this summer, just so you can see how it goes? You can even try different methods to see what you like best: http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/seedsave/2002084456024410.html http://wintersown.org/wseo1/Tomato_Seeds.html http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/A_Beginner%E2%80%99s_Guide_To_Saving_Tomato_Seeds_Using_Fermentation Then germinate some of the seeds, to see if you were successful. That way, when lightning strikes your only surviving plant of that super-rare variety you could only find three seeds of (because they're so popular, and they barely average a dozen seeds per tomato), and all you have left is one fruit ripening on the kitchen counter, you'll already know what you're doing, so you won't feel quite so pressured.

Thanks everyone for all the input and advice! I wanted a lot of seeds because I hoped to offer them to the people on seed savers forum who donated seeds to a program with people who have profound disabilities where I work. These are probably a named tomato but I don't know the variety. The Swartzentruber Amish family I buy them from doesn't know the type. They just call it a low acid tomato and have been saving the seeds for "a long time". The plants produce an amazing yield of large to very large tomatoes. The fruit is meaty and most are round or oblong, rarely lumpy and excellent for slicing. They have good old fashioned flavor. I actually like the flavor of the brandywine and better yet, Cleota Pinks a little more, but these are very worthy tomatoes. From the road or vegetable stand I can't tell if the plants are potato leafed or not. I did save seeds from several nice tomatoes that weren't blanched. Instead of fermenting them the way I usually do, I placed them in a tupperware sandwich container with pinholes punched all through the lid (from different project). They got moldy!!!!!! Don't know if I'll have any to share or not. Might go buy a few more. They sell individually for .50 a piece. So.. that's the story behind the seeds! Linda Renee